From Rentmojo To Yulu – Indian Startups Raised $110 Mn This Week

Investment activity continues to remain subdued in the Indian startup ecosystem as funding plunged further in the third week of the ongoing month. Between February 19 and 24, startups collectively raised $110.4 Mn across 15 deals, a 12% dip from $125 Mn secured across 18 deals in the previous week. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Feb 19 – Feb 24]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• After securing $25 Mn from Edelweiss Discovery Fund Series, Chiratae and Magnetic in its Series D funding round, online furniture rental startup Rentomojo netted the largest funding of the week. 
• Fuelled by two EV startups Yulu and Pure EV securing $19.25 Mn and $8 Mn, respectively, this week, cleantech emerged as the most funded sector with $35.9 Mn from three deals
• Both cleantech and fintech bagged the maximum number of deals this week. To be sure, cleantech secured $35.9 Mn across three deals, while the fintech sector mopped up $11.2 Mn across three deals.
• Seed funding took a hit again, going down from last week’s $7.9 Mn to $4.1 Mn across five deals this week.

Fund Launches This Week

• Venture Catalysts and Neovon-backed Spyre PropTech Venture Fund launched its maiden fund worth INR 400 Cr. The VC fund looks to back at least 30 startups, with an average ticket size of INR 2-8 Cr in early stage and INR 15-40 Cr for growth stage Series A and B rounds.
• Equirus marked the first close of its maiden early stage venture capital fund. The investment banking services company seeks to raise at least $25 Mn with the fund and will back SaaS, deeptech and fintech sectors majorly,  with a focus on B2B space. 
• Aroa Venture Partners launched a new fund ‘Aroa Opportunities Fund‘ with a $50 Mn corpus. The firm plans to deploy cheques of INR 4 Cr to INR 40 Cr across 20-25 startups from the new fund.

Other Major Developments From This Week 

• National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Limited (NIIF) committed $25 Mn to the second fund of Amicus Capital Partners. This adds to Amicus’ target corpus of $200 Mn for the fund. 
• Avanse Financial Services has received a commitment of $132.7 Mn in primary capital from Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Co, Kotak Pre-IPO Opportunities Fund and Avendus Future Leaders Fund. The deal will value the NBFC to INR 8,000 Cr.
• The state government of Bihar has roped in Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to administer the INR 50 Cr earmarked under the Bihar Startup Scale-up Financing Fund (BSSFF).
• AR toys and games maker PlayShifu will be raising $6 Mn in its Series C funding round led by Inflexor Ventures. Several family offices are also expected to join the startup’s cap table, sources told Inc42.
• NIIF is likely to acquire a majority stake in the Bengaluru-based digital infrastructure provider iBus for $200 Mn. The investment will come from its Master Fund.
• Fintech SaaS startup Signzy acquired fraud risk management solutions provider Difenz in a cash and equity deal, which valued the latter at $5 Mn. The acquisition is Signzy’s bid to strengthen its compliance solution offerings with AI.
• Embattled edtech giant BYJU’S rights issue to raise $200 Mn at a valuation cut of 99% got fully subscribed ahead of its crucial extraordinary general meeting (EGM). The company’s founder and CEO Byju Raveendran confirmed the development in a shareholder letter and will also be putting in a $45-$46 Mn in the rights issue himself. 
• Walmart-backed ecommerce major Flipkart is exploring acquisition of the cash-starved hyperlocal delivery startup Dunzo. However, Dunzo’s complex ownership structure is creating hurdles for the deal to come to fruition.
• Construction startup Infra.Market is looking to raise a debt of $60 Mn soon in multiple tranches.